Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Find your way with openstreetmap.la

I'm really happy to announce the latest update on openstreetmap.la: Routing has been integrated to the main page.

As illustrated in a previous post I evaluated the capabilities of the Open Source Routing Machine amongstother routing engines. The speed and the web-oriented architecture of the Open Source Routing Machine convinced me to use it as a backend to implement routing on openstreetmap.la.
In the left panel there are two text fields to enter start and destination. Similar to the search bar (in the toolbar) these are auto-complete fields: When you start typing, any points of interest like villages, restaurants, shop etc. are suggested.

Enter start and destination

The shortest route is calculated immediately and displayed on the map.

Shortest route

To fine-adjust or change the start or destination, drag and drop one or both markers and the route is instantly updated.
In the left panel detailed routing instructions are shown with heading directions, road names and trip distances.